What is the origin of our traditional festival, Qingming Festival? Please, thank you

Qingming Festival is an important traditional festival in China, and is one of the eight important festivals: Shangyuan, Qingming, Lixia, Dragon Boat Festival, Zhongyuan, Mid-Autumn Festival, Winter Solstice and Chinese New Year's Eve. It is generally on April 5 of the Gregorian calendar, but its festival period is very long, there are two sayings after the 10th day and 10 days before and 10 days later, and these nearly 20 days are all Qingming Festival.

The origin of the Qingming Festival, it is said that it began in the ancient emperors and generals of the "tomb sacrifice" ceremony, and later the folk also followed suit, on this day to worship the ancestors and sweep the tomb, the successive dynasties have become a fixed custom of the Chinese nation. Originally, the Cold Food Festival and the Qingming Festival were two different festivals, and in the Tang Dynasty, the day of worshipping and sweeping the tomb was set as the Cold Food Festival. The name of "Qingming Festival" also comes from the Qingming Festival in the 24 solar terms of the Chinese lunar calendar.

The 105th day after the winter solstice is the Qingming solar term. There are 15 days of Qingming solar terms. As the Qingming of the solar term, the time is after the vernal equinox.

At this time, winter has gone, spring is full of joy, the weather is clear, the four fields are clear, and nature is full of vitality. "Qingming" is a very appropriate word to call this period. [2] One hundred and five days after the winter solstice, it is called cold food, and in the past, fire and cold food were forbidden on this day, so it was also called "cold festival" and "non-smoking festival".

Folklore has it that the cold food is to commemorate the Spring and Autumn period when Jie Zitui was burned in Mianshan, and the Duke of Jin Wen ordered a ban on fire. Jie Zitui is a native of Shanxi, so the custom of cold food was first popular in Shanxi. In the old days, the cold food broke the fire, and the next day there was a ceremony of drilling wood to get a new fire in the palace, and the people also begged each other for new fire with wicker.

The traditional festival Qingming Festival can be traced back to ancient times, and it is combined with the spring festival Zhaosha.

The ancients believed that on the day of the Qingming Festival, the vitality was vigorous, the revival of all things, spring and Jingming, it was the best time to hold the spring festival, the so-called spring festival, that is, the clan stared at the ancestors in the spring.

The reason why spring is chosen is because in addition to expressing sorrow for the ancestors, it is also necessary to pray for the ancestors to start the spring festival at the beginning of the new year, and to bless the children and grandchildren with abundant crops and prosperity. Although there was a prototype of the Qingming Festival in ancient times, people did not regard Qingming as a fixed festival at that time, and the date of the spring festival was not specific to a certain day. It was not until the Duke of Jin Wen set up the Cold Food Festival to commemorate the introduction of Jiezhi, and set the day after the Cold Food Festival as the Qingming Festival, and the suffocation period of the Qingming Festival was fixed every year.

Customs:

1. Sweep the grave. In Chinese history, cold food and fire bans, sacrifices to ancestors, and tomb sweeping and ancestor worship on Qingming Festival have become a continuous custom and tradition since then. Even in today's society, people still have the custom of going to the grave to sweep the grave and worship their ancestors before and after the Qingming Festival

Remove weeds, place offerings, offer incense and prayers at the grave, burn paper money and gold ingots, or simply offer a bouquet of flowers to express the memory of the deceased.

2. Go green. In the Qingming season, spring returns to the earth, and the natural world presents a vibrant scene everywhere, which is a good time for outings. The people of our country have long maintained the habit of going out in the Qingming Festival.

3. Keju. It was the predecessor of today's football, and the ball skin was made of leather, and the ball was tightly stuffed with hair.

4. Insert willows. Qingming Festival is the time for willow to sprout and draw green, and the folk have the custom of folding willow, wearing willow and inserting willow. When people go green, they can fold a few wicker branches, which can be played with in their hands, or they can be woven into hats and worn on their heads, or they can be taken home and inserted on the lintel and eaves.

Qingming Festival is an ancient festival of the Chinese nation, which is not only a solemn festival of sweeping tombs and worshipping ancestors, but also a joyful festival for people to get close to nature, go out to play, and enjoy the fun of spring. Douzhi B (or the sun yellow longitude reaches 15 °) is the Qingming solar term, and the festival time is around April 5 in the Gregorian calendar. At this time, the vitality is vigorous, the yin qi declines, all things "spit out the old and accept the new", and the earth presents the image of spring and scenery.

The Qingming Ancestor Festival is very long, there are two sayings before and 8 days before and 10 days before and 10 days after, which are all during the Qingming Ancestor Festival in the past 20 days.

Seasonal food: Due to the transplantation of the cold food custom of the Cold Food Festival to the Qingming Festival, some places in northern China still retain the habit of eating cold food during the Qingming Festival. In Shandong, Jimo eats eggs and cold dumplings, and Laiyang, Zhaoyuan, and Changdao eat eggs and cold sorghum rice, and it is said that if you don't, you will suffer hail.

Taean eats cold pancake rolls and raw bitter vegetables, and it is said that he has bright eyes when he eats them. In many places, after the sacrificial ritual is completed, the sacrificial food is divided and eaten. When the people of Jinnan passed the Qingming Festival, they used to use white flour to steam big buns, and there were Nianzi walnuts, dates, and beans in the middle.

Records of folk cold food customs appeared almost suddenly in the documents of the Eastern Han Dynasty, mainly in the Shanxi region. Even in the Tang and Song dynasties, when the custom of cold food was quite popular, its spread did not go beyond the north. Jin Lu Yan Jinhui's "Ye Zhong Ji" was the first to talk about the special food in the cold food:

On the day of cold food, it is made of cheese, boiled japonica rice and wheat are cheese, and apricot red is boiled to make porridge. "Until the Tang and Song dynasties, people were still eating this cold barley porridge.